Antonyme

Antonyme is the term used in many languages to refer to antonyms. In linguistics, antonyms are words with opposite meanings within the same lexical field. They appear in pairs or sets that help express contrasts, negate propositions, or describe degrees of opposition. Antonyms are contrasted with synonyms, which share similar meanings, and with unrelated words.

Classification. Three common types are: gradable antonyms, such as hot and cold, which lie on a spectrum; complementary antonyms, such as dead and alive, which are mutually exclusive; and relational (converses) antonyms, such as buy and sell, which describe a reciprocal relation.

Context and variation. Antonymy is a semantic relation that can vary by language, domain, and usage. Some words have multiple antonyms depending on sense; some pairs function as near-antonyms with partial overlap; converses require a defined relationship between the terms.

Examples. In English, common antonym pairs include big–small, young–old, light–dark, true–false, full–empty. Some words have more than one plausible antonym, and certain contrasts are culture- or domain-specific. The strength of opposition also matters; some antonyms are strong opposites, others only approximate.

In lexicography and natural language processing, antonyms are catalogued with notes on sense, scope, and typical usage to aid learners and applications in tasks such as thesaurus construction, sentiment analysis, and linguistic research.